Today, portable phones called smartphones have been widely used as multifunctional-type portable electronic devices. One characteristic of the smartphones is user-friendliness in incorporating (installing) applications. More specifically, One characteristic of the smartphones is that, although basic applications have been installed therein in advance, the smartphone users (hereinafter, users) can download applications they want to use anytime they want from a network and freely use them.
However, this characteristic on the other hand causes a disadvantage in that an operation for executing an application takes time. This is because the number of applications to be installed in a smartphone is significantly increased (at least several tens and sometimes up to more than a hundred), whereby an application desired to be executed cannot be easily found.
Generally, the management of applications in a smartphone is performed by objects for activating the applications called icons being arranged on a plurality of menu screens called home screens. In many cases, about 20 icons are arranged on one home screen. Also, if requested, an arbitrary icon is provided in a folder format, and several icons can be collectively arranged in the folder.
In such application management, when executing a desired application, the user performs operations of sequentially opening the home screens, finding the icon of the desired application, and touching the icon. In a case where the icon of the desired application has been stored in an icon in a folder format, an operation of opening the folder is also required.
These operations are not particularly bothersome when the number of installed applications (the number of icons) is small. However, when the number of applications especially exceed a hundred, a considerable amount of time and work is inevitably required as a matter of course.
Accordingly, there is demand from the users to execute a desired application with less effort.
Examples of related techniques meeting this user demand include those of below-described Patent Documents 1 to 4.
Patent Document 1 describes a technique where emergency communication is made when a predetermined contact pattern, which is a pattern of three times of long pressing, three times of short pressing, and three times of long pressing (in other words, a pattern imitating a SOS telegraph code of “--- ••• ---”) onto a touch panel in the document is detected.
According to this, a required application (in this case, an application for emergency communication) can be executed by a particular touch operation without finding the corresponding icon every time from home screens.
As a similar technique, Patent Document 2 describes a technique where “the manner of patting” a robot is detected and a user of the robot is identified from the result of the detection. “The manner of patting”, which is detected by a pressure sensor provided in a head part, chin, etc. of the robot, corresponds to the predetermined contact pattern of Patent Document 1.
Patent Document 3 describes a technique where one vibration generating section and four vibration receiving sections are provided in the housing of a portable electronic device, vibrations from the thumb of a hand holding the housing are transmitted to the other four fingers, and individual authentication is performed based on the transmission pattern of the vibrations.
Patent Document 4 describes a technique where contact patterns (in the document, one-point contact, two-point contact, or three-point contact) are registered in advance in association with incoming groups of e-mails and phones, and a notification is given by vibrations when an incoming call or e-mail is received. When an actual contact pattern matches a stored contact pattern, a notification notifying that it is an incoming call or e-mail from the registered group is given by the vibrations being stopped.